ImPulse - clitoral gel by Kama Sutra - review by Jul!a

This "intensifying gel" is designed to help intensify the sensations your clitoris feels during action by providing a cooling sensation. It comes in with a completely discreet applicator that also has the option to vibrate during application. The added vibration isn't meant to be a finisher, but instead combine with the herbal extracts in the gel to help add to arousal.

The gel inside the applicator is designed to roll on smoothly and evenly, and it really does seem to. It's thin, but not watery, and stays where you put it. Between the fingers it feels pretty silky, on my arm it got a little bit tacky before it dried completely, but in use none of that was noticeable. It went on chilly and wet, and stayed that way.

Spearmint gum is the first thing I think of when I smell this. When it's first put on it definitely smells strongly of spearmint, but after just a few moments the scent dissipates a lot; requiring you to get very close to smell it. I'd advise against tasting this if at all possible. It wasn't designed to be edible, but I don't think you're going to end up with any serious adverse effects if you do manage to ingest some. Licking some off my arm for science resulted in a sharp numbing sensation on my tongue if that makes sense.

I tried this first without the vibrations, and ended up with about 10 minutes of cooling sensations before I couldn't really notice it anymore. I tried it again with the vibrations and got about the same amount of time out of the cooling sensations. Something that I do feel is worth noting is that with or without the extra vibrations, even after the cooling sensations were gone, I did feel more "in the mood" than I normally would have. It didn't intensify my orgasms from what I could tell, but it did make me want to obtain more orgasms than I started out wanting. I didn't feel any need to wash this stuff off, but a wipedown with a wipe or a damp washcloth should be more than enough to get it off when you're done.

The vibrations are whisper quiet and actually not that bad. They're still not going to do much more than tease most women, but given that that's what they were designed to do I don't think it's a big deal. There doesn't seem to be a way to get at a battery, so once the vibrations are gone, they're gone. You also don't have to remove the cap if you want just the light vibrations, if you leave the cap on it's like a low intensity bullet. If you're prone to itchy fingers from vibrations though, you may want to limit how long you have this one on. The vibrations are fairly buzzy and made my fingers itch.

The tube itself is small; will easily tuck into just about any pocket and holds .15 fluid ounces. It has a rounded cap that screws on and lets you get to the rolling ball applicator, and the bottom has a button that turns vibrations on and off. It does say "KamaSutra" and "impulse" but other than that, there's nothing risque about the tube at all. Should you need to clean the tube at all, the product page recommends an alcohol swab. I personally wiped it down with a Kleenex and it was fine.

The actual box is also nice; with a window under a flap that lets you see the tube, a shot of the tube without the cap, and a short blurb in English, French, Spanish, and German. It also has a list of ingredients that read as water, propylene glycol, polysorbate 80, glycerin, arginine, flavor, citric acid, potassium sorbate, methylparaben, hydroxyethylcellulose, menthol, sodium saccharin, xanthan gum, disodium EDTA, dioscorea villosa (wild yam) root extract, serenoa serrulata fruit extract, turnera diffusa leaf extract, arnica montana flower extract, angelica polymorpha sinensis root extract, cimicifuga racemosa root extract, ornithine. If you know you have sensitivities to glycerin or parabens, you should probably avoid using this then.

A lot of ingredient lists look pretty scary these days, so I went searching to see what I could find for you.

According to Skin Deep, the scariest thing here is the methylparaben, which is a preservative that mostly causes allergic reactions.

Water, propylene glycol is a skin conditioning agent that helps aid absorption, polysorbate 80 is a surfactant and an emulsifier, glycerin is a viscosity decreasing agent, arginine is a harmless skin conditioning agent, flavor, citric acid is a common fragrance ingredient, potassium sorbate is a preservative, methylparaben is another preservative, hydroxyethylcellulose is a viscosity stabilizer, menthol is a flavoring agent that also provides cooling sensations, sodium saccharin is an artificial sweetener, xanthan gum helps things gel, disodium EDTA is another viscosity controlling agent, dioscorea villosa (wild yam) root extract, serenoa serrulata fruit extract, and turnera diffusa leaf extract are skin conditioning agents, arnica montana flower extract, angelica polymorpha sinensis root extract, cimicifuga racemosa root extract, and ornithine are also skin conditioning agents.

I'm always skeptical of products like this, especially since the few I've tried didn't seem to really do anything. I have to admit, even though I really dislike spearmint, I did like this stuff. It went on smooth, the cooling sensations weren't overwhelming, and the vibrations felt nice. In a decision between a cooling sensation hardly working or working too well, I will always pick the more subtle of the sensations. Some may want something more intense, and for that I'd recommend picking up a cooling lube. But for those who like subtle sensations, I think this will be a hit. I can't speak for all women on how long it will last either. For me, the cooling sensation didn't last all that long, but the "ooh, I'm now feeling a bit frisky" sensation did keep going for about half an hour. This isn't something I'm going to grab all the time, but I will definitely keep using it.